Fighting Ageism And Uncovering Disparities
What should Americans know about their elected officials health as they age, and what will that reveal about their abilities to lead?
Dr Karen Bullock, who leads North Carolina State Universitys Department of Social Work, has more than 20 years of experience studying mental health and aging.
While there is heightened scrutiny about the candidates health and age ahead of Election Day, there still is not enough evidence that voters have prioritised age as a deciding factor in determining who is the best candidate to lead this country for the next four years, she said.
In the US, we have fought long and hard against stereotypes, mislabeling, ageism, sexism, racism and other actions of actions of discrimination and prejudice, she told The Independent.
In that sense, she said, the candidates are a reflection of our collective belief that we should judge people solely by the evidence of merit and morals irrespective of the antiquated belief that older age impairs one’s cognition and competence to lead this country.”
Joe Biden removes his mask during a campaign event.
She said that for the public to better understand elected officials health, reporters should continue to rely on credible health evaluations and assessments and frame age-related issues through a historical context a reflection of their past performance and statements and how they appeal to younger Americans.
First Lady Of The United States
Bidens husband was elected president and took office on January 20, 2021. She is the first spouse since Barbara Bush to hold the positions of both Second Lady and First Lady and is the first spouse since Pat Nixon to hold them non-consecutively. At age 69, Biden is the oldest first lady to assume the role. She is also the first Italian American first lady. In mid-November 2020, it was announced that her chief of staff as first lady would be attorney and diplomat and that her senior advisor in the role would be campaign staffer Anthony Bernal. In December 2020, an op-ed piece by writer Joseph Epstein in The Wall Street Journal, which urged the incoming First Lady to drop the Dr. from her preferred form of address because she is not a medical doctor, was met with a widespread backlash especially among professional women. Outgoing First Lady Melania Trump did not invite incoming First Lady Jill Biden to the White House for tea and a tour, which previously had been a tradition in the presidential transition of power.
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Despite The Health Concerns Older Presidential Candidates Have An Advantage
Over the past couple of years, there has been plenty of discussion about the age of US presidential candidates.
More specifically, there have been worries that old age may negatively impact the abilities of a serving president.
For example, the impact of a stressful campaign on an older politician became a major topic of conversation in 2019 after Democratic Party challenger Bernie Sanders suffered a heart attack.
There is no doubt that elderly politicians find it easier to get into a position of power in the United States than other age groups.
This is because most of them have had lengthy political careers. In other words, they have been in the limelight for decades and are highly recognizable to voters.
Many voters also associate aging with characteristics such as wisdom and experience.
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There Are Unexpected Strengths To An Aging Mind
Come November, well have two septuagenarian candidates facing off. If theyre not geezers, theyre geezer-adjacent. Should we be worried?
A presidents schedule requires fortitude, patience, and intense concentration. A typical day includes a series of high-level meetings and events, including briefings by Cabinet members and White House staff, meetings with congressional and foreign leaders, and delivering remarks at various press events. There are official visits to important allied countries, international meetings such as the United Nations General Assembly each fall, and political events in key states. The president signs legislation but is also the chief executive of the largest employer in the US, a diplomat, and commander in chief of the armed forces. Its a grueling job physically and cognitively, and its natural to question whether there is an upper age limit on meeting such demands.
Looking at the health of former presidents doesnt necessarily provide any answers. Our presidents have ranged widely in age, and age hasnt always correlated with mental and physical fitness. George W. Bush was up at 5:15 each morning and in bed by 9 pm. But Bill Clinton, one of our younger presidents at just 46 when elected, had a quadruple bypass operation on his heart just three years after leaving office. Our oldest president before Donald Trump, Ronald Reagan, who was elected at 69, was diagnosed with Alzheimers four years after he left office.
Daniel J. Levitin
How Old Were Previous United States Presidents
The U.S. is no stranger to senior citizens as presidents. Ronald Reagan, inaugurated in 1981, was 69 years old for his election and swearing into office. The fourth-oldest president in the countrys history was President William Henry Harrison at 68 in 1841.
President Theodore Roosevelt, commonly known as Teddy, was the youngest president in the nations history at 42, only slightly above the 2019 populations average age of 38. Recent president Barack Obama won office at 47 in 2008, becoming the fifth-youngest president.
How old were previous leaders?:Here’s a detailed graphic on presidential inauguration ages
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They Both Want The Midterms To Be About The Former President
One thing upon which Joe Biden and Donald Trump agree is that the biggest issue confronting voters in the midterms this November is Donald Trump. The two men are locked in a dark contest, the likes of which no living American has witnessed between a sitting and former president. Mr Biden and Mr Trump are travelling to battleground states to warn of grievous threats from fellow Americans and to make the case, respectively, that Mr Trump is to blame, or that only he can save the country.
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Apocalyptic warnings and divisive tactics are Mr Trumps stock in trade. They are more surprising coming from Mr Biden. That he has felt it necessary to resort to them is yet another sick triumph for Mr Trump over what was once normal in American politics.
What is also surprising is that Americans appear to agree with the two presidentsor, more precisely, to disagree with each other, in parallel to them. In the past, political campaigns that focused on the conduct of politics itself, such as on the influence of big financial contributions over legislation, have not captured the imagination of voters. But a recent poll by nbc News found that a plurality of voters cited threats to democracy as the most important issue facing the country, ahead of the cost of living, jobs and the economy or abortion.
Trump Vs Clinton In Opinion Polls
Over the course of 2020, Biden’s lead over Trump in opinion polls has widened. A list of head-to-head match-ups for Clinton and Trump in opinion polls can be found on Wikipedia.
BBC’
RealClearPolitics also compiles an average of national polls, which mirrors the Wikipedia compilation above and shows Biden leading Trump consistently throughout 2020.
Another tracker of national sentiment is compiled by FiveThirtyEight.com. Their visualization also shows Biden has a lead of roughly 8 percentage points as of October 3, 2020.
It should be noted that opinion polls can paint a misleading picture. In 2016, these same models and averages showed Clinton leading Trump by 3 to 4 percentage points. And although Trump lost the popular vote, he did win the electoral vote and therefore the presidency.
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Joe Bidens Early Years
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was born on November 20, 1942, in the blue-collar city of Scranton, Pennsylvania. At age 10 he moved with his family to the Wilmington, Delaware, area, where his father found work as a car salesman. The first of four siblings, Biden attended a series of Catholic schools, including the elite preparatory high school Archmere Academy.
Though he excelled at sports, Biden received mediocre grades and struggled with a stutter. In 1965 he graduated from the University of Delaware with a double major in history and political science, and three years later he earned a law degree from Syracuse University. Meanwhile, in 1966, Biden married Neilia Hunter, with whom he would have three children.
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So What’s The Point Then
Two reasons.
One is that it’s natural for an opposition party that wins back some measure of governing power to start to investigate a White House held by the opposite party. Democrats have done it in the past remember that Trump’s first impeachment didn’t happen until Dems won the House in the 2018 midterm elections and Republicans are already deep into planning their efforts. The party is already “planning to bombard Joe Biden’s administration with investigations next year,” Politico reported in July, with proposed inquiries into Hunter Biden’s “business dealings, Afghanistan, the origins of the coronavirus, inflation causes, and the U.S.-Mexico border.”
Second, there’s the politics: The GOP base really, really wants Biden impeached. One poll taken in May shows that impeaching Biden would be unpopular with the broad American electorate but very popular with Republican voters. “While just over one-third of the poll’s 1,000 respondents say that a GOP-controlled House should impeach Biden, 68 percent of Republicans and Trump voters and 66 percent of conservatives all would like to see the President charged by Congress for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,” the University of Massachusetts Amherst reported. That may be all the reason elected Republicans need to proceed.
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Would They Be Able To Get A Conviction
Probably not. Everything hinges on the forthcoming midterm elections. As you probably know by now because, again, we’ve had two impeachments in recent years the Constitution requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate to convict. And the math isn’t really there.
Right now, Republicans have 50 seats in the Senate, and they need to win just one more to win control over the chamber in November. That might happen. But will they pick up 17 seats? That’s highly improbable: Of the 35 seats up for election this fall, only 14 are currently in Dem hands and just two, involving Sens. Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada are listed by the influential Cook Political Report as “toss up” races that Republicans have a decent chance to win. Assuming that an impeachment trial would break down along party lines, it’s difficult to see how Republicans would have the numbers to kick Biden out of the White House.
Majority Of Americans Say Donald Trump And Joe Biden Are Both Too Old To Serve As President: Poll
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The majority of American adults say Biden and Trump are too old to serve in public office right now, according to a new poll.
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But respondents were more likely to say Biden was too old to serve.
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Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say Rep. Liz Cheney is “the right age” to serve.
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are only about four years apart in age.
But more American adults feel that Biden is too old to serve than Trump, according to a new Insider/Morning Consult poll.
Seventy-six percent of the more than 2,200 people surveyed in early September felt that Biden, 79, was “too old” to serve in public office right now, while 57% said the same about Trump, 76.
While the Founding Fathers set an age minimum for US presidents the president must be at least 35 years old an age maximum doesn’t exist. That means both Biden and Trump would be serving in office well into their 80s if elected for a second term in 2024, a feat no US president has ever achieved. And if Trump were to win the election, upon swearing in, he would be the same age Biden is now an age many Republicans consider too old.
“The Biden administration has really been responsive to the concerns of younger voters wherever they had any influence that they could,” he said. “But even despite that, I think it’s clear that younger voters have been more likely to lose faith with the Biden administration early on, and less likely to enthusiastically approve his job performance.”
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How A Wild Week In Washington Changed The Game For Biden And Trump
As the midterms approach, Bidens climate success and Trumps legal troubles could offer Democrats unexpected hope
Departing his small, unshowy home state of Delaware, Joe Biden roared into the sky aboard Air Force One, borne aloft by jet fuel and a dramatic uplift in his political fortunes.
A thousand miles away, some unexpected guests had just arrived at the opulent Florida estate of the US presidents predecessor, Donald Trump, but not for its champagne, sumptuous buffet or two pound lobsters.
At about 9am on Monday, FBI agents said to number between 30 and 40, some wearing suits, most in T-shirts, casual trousers, masks and gloves began a search of Mar-a-Lago for government secrets that should not have left the White House.
It was a tale of two presidents: Biden at his zenith, gaining praise for a hot streak and earning comparisons with the master legislator Lyndon Johnson Trump at his nadir, under criminal investigation for potential violations of the Espionage Act and earning comparisons with the 1920s gangster Al Capone.
And yet, such is the upside down nature of American politics in 2022, determining who won and who lost the week was less clear cut. For Biden, to be sure, it was a much needed boost after months of Washington gridlock, miserable poll ratings and speculation that he could face a challenger from his own Democratic party in the 2024 presidential election.
Joe Biden As Vice President
Biden kicked off his second attempt at the White House 20 years later, during the 2008 primary, but dropped out after securing only 1 percent of the delegates in the Iowa Democratic caucuses. Barack Obama tapped him to be his running mate after winning the Democratic nomination. In the November 2008 presidential elections, Obama and Biden bested their Republican opponents, John McCain and Sarah Palin, with 52.9 percent of the popular vote. In 2012 they defeated Republican challenger Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan.
After taking office in January 2009 as the 47th vice president of the United States, Biden was charged with overseeing a $787 billion economic stimulus package, running a middle-class task force and reviving an arms reduction treaty with Russia. He also played a strong advisory role with respect to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2015, Biden’s eldest son Beau died of brain cancer, dealing a heavy blow for a man who had already endured such loss. Biden considered a presidential run in 2016 but ultimately decided against it.
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Early Life And Career In The Senate
Biden, who was raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and New Castle county, Delaware, received a bachelors degree from the University of Delaware in 1965 and a law degree from Syracuse University in New York in 1968. During this time he married Neilia Hunter, and the couple later had three children.
After graduating from law school, Biden returned to Delaware to work as an attorney before quickly turning to politics, serving on the New Castle county council from 1970 to 1972. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972 at the age of 29, becoming the fifth youngest senator in history. About a month later his wife and infant daughter were killed in a car accident, and his two sons were seriously injured. Although he contemplated suspending his political career, Biden was persuaded to join the Senate in 1973, and he went on to win reelection six times, becoming Delawares longest-serving senator. In 1977 he married Jill Jacobs, an educator, and they later had a daughter. In addition to his role as U.S. senator, Biden also was an adjunct professor at the Wilmington, Delaware, branch of the Widener University School of Law.
Joe Biden And Donald Trump Are Both Far Past Retirement Age Of 65 The Presidential Candidacy Requires A Minimum Age But It Is Time To Consider Adding A Maximum Age
President Joe Biden will be nearly 82 by the 2024 presidential elections, and former President Donald Trump will be 77. Are these men too old to serve?
Susan Walsh, Associated Press
Article II of the Constitution specifies eligibility requirements for the office of the president, including the individual shall have attained to the age of thirty-five years. There are few things that both Democrats and Republicans might agree on, but one of those may be the merit of also providing a constitutionally mandated upper age limit.
Only 38% still approve of Joe Bidens performance. Many believe he is too old for the job. Others believe that Donald Trump is unfit for office and would gladly support any measure that would limit his eligibility to run in 2024.
According to a poll conducted earlier this year , 54% of Americans do not believe Biden has the mental sharpness it takes to serve effectively as president.
Perhaps indicative of just how bad things may be, just a few days ago, Biden inadvertently revealed detailed instructions provided by his staff. It began: YOU enter the Roosevelt room and say hello to participants. YOU take YOUR seat Most agree such detailed notes are not normal.
Being confused and needing a little coaching, though a normal part of aging, may have cataclysmic consequences if the individual holds the power to order a nuclear strike.
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